So about a month ago I was browsing through gog.com (Good Old Games) and was looking through the RPG category when I came across "Two Worlds: Epic Edition" for $10.

Now my first reaction was, "Hmm...Two Worlds...isn't that game supposed to be awful?" I had talked to very few people who had actually played the game and, among those, the reaction was generally the same - negative.

One issue apparently was that the game, upon initial release, was full of bugs. Luckily, however, the "Epic Edition" both adds new content to the original game and fixes nearly all of the game's bugs. The only bugs that I've encountered in my 80 or so hours with the game are 1) the "psychic" bug where NPCs talk without their mouths moving and 2) horses getting stuck on steep hills/mountains. Other than that, the game seems to be essentially bug free. And frankly, that's better than a lot of games out there.

Two Worlds is certainly a flawed game. I'll make no attempt to deny that. Yes, the voice acting is generally atrocious (though honestly I love it as it's almost always unintentionally hilarious) and yes the writing is even worse - everyone talks in this "Ye olde English" that sounds RIDICULOUS...and HILARIOUS. The user interface doesn't scale with the resolution so if you turn it up to max resolution the skill bar, map, etc. are TINY.

Nevertheless, I've had a blast playing the game. At its core, Two Worlds is essentially Oblivion meets Diablo. It has the massive open world of Oblivion with the loot-driven aspect akin to Diablo. There's a lot of interesting tweaks thrown in to these genres which I really appreciate. For example, if you have two pieces of armor that have the same skin, you can simply drag one onto the other and now their stats are combined. Find a piece of gear that looks awesome but has shitty stats? No problem! Just combine it with another of the same item to pump up those stats. You know how Diablo (and all of its clones) had teleport scrolls? Well, Two Worlds does it better - it has teleport stones, which you drop onto the ground and become a teleporter to any previously discovered waypoints or other teleport stones which you've previously dropped. Once you're done, just pick up the stone and you're good to go. Not sure whether you want to be a dual axe-wielding meleer or a mage? Why not do both! There's no set classes in the game, you can build your character however you choose. And if you get 30 hours into the game and decide you don't like the direction your character is progressing, no worries - just go to special mages, pay a fee, and totally respec your character. Quests are genuinely diverse, well designed, and have actual repercussions - as you can see in this video. The world of Two Worlds is MASSIVE. More importantly, however, that world is actually interesting to explore. There's a lot of diversity to the landscape unlike some, more famous, RPGs (see Oblivion - hope you like forests and fields). The combat is simplistic but generally a lot of fun. The game is simply fun to play. It does make a pretty bad first impression, however, and it takes a few hours to really get into the game.

If you can look passed the cheesy writing and the silly voice acting, Two Worlds has a lot to offer to those who enjoy games like Oblivion or Diablo. I love both so it works out perfectly for me!